A documentation of our transition into tiny house living.

Month: July 2016

This last week has been full of exterior tiny house projects, but as we are only half way done with the exterior, I decided to split the blog post in two and show you our papering/window installing/sheeting extravaganza.

We left off with the tiny house being completely framed and roofed (minus the bathroom).

Sometimes you need a little extra weight to get the job done.

The first thing J did when we picked up the materials for the siding was complete the bathroom wall.

Next came a mixture of papering, flashing and window installing.

Nothing gets more exciting than when you start to see something form that you only daydreamed about for months. Seeing the windows go in made the tiny house actually start looking like a tiny house.

Round and round J goes.

We laid the paper directly on the studs, with the plywood exterior wood sitting on top of that versus plywood, paper then siding because our plywood exterior is acting as both sheer and siding. We went this direction because as we were already maxed out on our trailer width, we didn’t want to go over that amount with the added siding.

Tiny house materials already serving double duty!

Amazing that in this picture, there will be part of our kitchen, our dining spot, living room, staircase, W’s room and the twin guest loft bed!

Nice view!

Once the exterior was papered, J had to devise a safe and reliable way to put up the plywood so he could nail it to the studs and make sure it was still level and not suddenly slip.

He took a spare (level) piece of plywood and clamped it so the top edge of that piece was where he wanted the bottom edge of the exterior piece to sit. Now he could rest the plywood on the bottom piece without worrying about slippage while he nailed it in place.

Once all the bottom plywood was secure, z bar flashing (to help prevent water seepage) was set on the top edge and thinner pieces of plywood were added to the top. Cedar shingles will be (hopefully) nailed into place at the top in the coming weeks, along with the battens for the bottom.

Just a few more pieces to go!

Once all completed, W and I enjoyed some Popsicles after all the hard supervising!

Saturday morning started bright and early. J’s dad came out both Saturday and Sunday to help frame the tiny house.

Chalk lines where snapped and windows and door locations were laid out.

When a toddler supervises the job site, you get a lot of requests for juice refills and summons to play with bubbles.

Walls are put up. Very carefully.

Once all the walls are up and secure, the day was just about done and was picked up again on Sunday.

With the dawn of Sunday comes the rise of the roof.

And the plywood for the roof.

In the span of 2 days, J and his dad, along with the help of J’s stepdad and brother completed framing the walls, putting in Wren’s bedroom, twin loft and the master loft and framing and sheeting the roof.

We’ve been extremely busy this past week. After we brought the trailer home, we picked up the flashing needed for underneath the trailer and the rigid foam insulation for the floor.

We chose 16 gauge galvanized steel for the flashing for its sturdiness and inability to rust. There’s no way anything will makes its way through the bottom!

The downside of such sturdy metal means that it was extremely heavy and difficult to install.

Jacks were needed. It definitely wasn’t a one man kind of job.

Add 100+ degree weather to the mix and that makes for a most unpleasant task. I’m surprised J didn’t come out with a permanent sunburn.

After the flashing was installed, the insulation was cut to size and put in.

In the four corners of the trailer, J also welded metal plate. Once the frame is put up, he will be adding HD (heavy duty) tiedowns to the four corners to help hold the corners of the tiny house down to the frame.

A bonus to the open bottomed corners means that we can also have access to work on the trailer brake lights if need be.

A few days after, our lumber was ready for pick up.

Our first pickup was enough for the subfloor and framing. In a couple weeks, we’ll pick up the lumber for the siding.

Unloading the lumber from the trailer.

The plywood subfloor was cut to size but before being laid down, all the top metal was cleaned, glue was applied and then the subfloor was put on.

Next comes screws, lots and lots of screws.

W helping daddy.

The gap on the right side of the trailer will be filled in once the framing is started.